Renfrewshire (see also Inverclyde)

Extract from John Thomson’s Atlas of Scotland 1832. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

BARSHAW HOSPITAL, PAISLEY Barshaw House, a somewhat eccentric looking house, was built in the late eighteenth century to designs by Robert Smith. It was extended to the west around 1860, and again around 1880 to designs by John Hutchison. The house was acquired by Paisley Town Council in 1911 with the grounds being opened as a public park the following year. The house became an infirmary, taking wounded soldiers towards the end of the First World War. It was subsequently converted into a Maternity and Child Welfare Home. It opened as such on 15 December 1921.

A new maternity ward was built to the rear of the house, probably in the 1930s, under the influence of T. Tait’s Hawkhead Hospital in Paisley. It closed as a maternity hospital in 1959 and was then converted into a geriatric hospital, re-opening in 1961. It had closed again by the late 1990s, the house was converted into flats in 1998. [Sources: Pevsner Architectural Guide, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, 2016: and see the Mansion Houses of Paisley]

BRIDGE OF WEIR HOSPITAL The Bridge of Weir Hospital for Consumptives opened on 3 September 1896. It was designed by the Glasgow-based hospital architect Robert Bryden. The site was purchased in 1893. Mr Quarrier had toured similar institutions in England with Robert Bryden, who was the architect of the Quarrier Homes. They visited the hospital for consumptives at Ventnor, on the Isle of Wight, and incorporated many of its features at Bridge of Weir. In particular Quarrier was impressed by the provision of private bedrooms and small sitting rooms. A Board of Medical Advisers, assembled by Quarrier to assist in preparing plans, comprised some of the leading authorities of the day, including Professor W. T. Gairdner, Dr D Yellowlees and Dr J. B. Russell.

Extract from the 2nd edition OS map, revised in 1912. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

The hospital was built in three stages, as funds permitted, with the first sanatorium building begun in 1894 (the east block of the present {1990} complex). The foundation stone was laid by Sir William Arrol on 5 September 1894 and the first block was opened by lady Glen Coats two years later. This was followed by the second sanatorium building. ‘The door of Hope’, (at the centre of the present hospital complex), built in 1898-1900, and the third block opened in 1907 to the west.

By 1899 the Nordrach open-air treatment was adopted, although the buildings were not initially designed on the open air principal. With the decline in the need for tuberculosis accommodation the hospital was converted for geriatric patients and the chronic sick.

The hospital had closed by 2004 when work began to redevelop the site for housing, the original buildings were converted into flats. [Sources: Alexander Gammrie, A Romance of Faith, 1945: Lancet, 6 Oct. 1906, p.961.]

CALDWELL HOUSE, UPLAWMOOR (ruined) Caldwell House, designed by Robert Adam, built 1771-3, was a mansion house in Adam’s restrained castle style. It was converted into a mental deficiency institution by Govan Board of Control, opening in 1929. A laundry and boiler house were built to designs by James Taylor as part of the conversion to hospital use.

Extract from the 1:25,000 OS map, published in 1958. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

The patients were transferred to Merchiston Hospital when the new complex was opened and Caldwell House was sold. Neglect and vandalism were compounded by a serious fire in 1995 to reduce the house to a roofless ruin. [Sources: Pevsner Architectural Guide, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, 2016]

DARNLEY HOSPITAL, EASTWOOD (demolished) Darnley Hospital was designed by James Lymburn Cowan as the Joint Infectious Diseases Hospital provided by the Upper District of Renfrew and the burghs of Pollokshaws and Barrhead.

Extract from the 2nd edition OS map, surveyed in 1896. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

The decision to build the hospital was taken in 1894 and the plans were approved soon afterwards. The architect was a local man who also designed the masonic halls in West Regent Street, Glasgow and submitted designs for the Govan District Asylum in the following year. The central two‑storey, Flemish baroque administration building had a central shaped gable and dormers giving a lively, almost castellated skyline. Carved strapwork details on window bays, gables and the entrance‑arch focus attention away from the simple, single‑storey ward blocks to either side.

DYKEBAR HOSPITAL, PAISLEY Dykebar Hospital was built as the Renfrew District Asylum by T. G. Abercrombie. It opened in 1909 and was the last of the group of colony or village district asylums. It served the county of Renfrew with the exception of Paisley and Johnstone burghs which already had provision for pauper lunatics.

Extract from the 2nd edition OS map, revised in 1910-11. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

Originally the asylum consisted of an administrative centre with admission hospital wings to each side, two male villas, two female villas and a reception house, the very suavely detailed medical superintendent’s house (now derelict, and just a roofless shell) and the service buildings. The individual blocks have many features typical of Abercrombie’s meticulous work seen in the details of the chimney stacks, and in his treatment of the dormers and gables. There is also a fine lodge and gate‑way to the east of the site.

Extract from the 2nd edition OS map, revised in 1939-40. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

In 1914 two further villas and a nurses’ home were added. Towards the end of the First World War the hospital was taken over by the military, but during the Second World War Dykebar received patients from the requisitioned Stirling District Asylum at Bellsdyke and the Smithston Institution at Greenock.

In 1975 a major new extension was opened which provided accommodation for psycho‑geriatric patients, a new recreation hall and patient and staff dining-rooms.

ELDERSLIE COTTAGE HOSPITAL, CHERRYWOOD ROAD, ELDERSLIE (demolished) Formerly known as the Johnstone and District Cottage Hospital it opened c.1893. It was a compactly designed hospital very much like a pair of picturesque cottages. [Sources: Medical Directory, 1904]

Extract from the 2nd edition OS map, surveyed in 1895. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

GLENCOATS AUXILIARY HOSPITAL, PAISLEY (Largely demolished) The house of Ferguslie Park, designed by Hippolyte J. Blanc, was presented to the Royal Alexandra Infirmary in 1934. It was designated as an auxiliary hospital in memory of Sir Thomas and Lady Glen Coats and Major A. Harold Glen Coats.

HAWKHEAD HOSPITAL, PAISLEY (partly demolished) Opened on 7 July, 1936 to designs by Burnet, Tait and Lorne in the distinctive International Modern, streamlined style, with its flat roofs and rounded angles. The cubicle isolation ward block has particular flare and is the best example of such a block in Scotland. The site comprises a gate house, administration building, nurses’ home, staff cottages, boiler house and laundry with six single‑storey ward pavilions set to the rear on a north‑south axis, and the cubicle isolation ward block adjacent on a west‑east axis. The blocks were constructed in hollow brick‑work and finished in Brizolit, a fine textured rough‑cast which was painted white giving the hospital a gleaming clinical appearance. Pale yellow and blue tiles form the chief decorative feature of the buildings, on tiled piers flanking doorways and some windows. The blocks are now dry‑dashed in buff‑brown, this and the removal of many of the other original features greatly lessens the impact of the hospital complex.

Extract from the 2nd edition OS map, revised in 1939. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

The hospital was built as a large new infectious diseases hospital to replace the outdated small hospitals built at the turn of the century. In this respect it compares with Cameron Hospital in Fife and the Ayrshire Central Hospital at Irvine but Hawkhead has the edge on these in daring and exciting architecture, as might be expected with Tait as the architect, who was a native of Paisley. [Sources: Architect & Building News, 18 March 1932, p.382; Journal of the R.I.B.A., 23 January 1937, p.271; The Builder, 14 January 1938, p.79; Argyll and Clyde Health Board, Hawkhead Hospital, souvenir brochure for opening of hospital.]

JOHNSTONE HOSPITAL Begun c.1887 this hospital was originally built as the Johnstone Infectious Diseases Hospital. Most of the older blocks have now been demolished to make way for the new blocks built in the 1980s. A small‑pox hospital was built on the adjacent site of corrugated‑iron and wood, probably by Speirs & Co. which was sometimes used as an overflow fever hospital. [Sources: The Builder, 20 Nov. 1886, p.749; 1 Feb. 1896, p.99.]

LOCHWINNOCH SANATORIUM, WEST MITCHELTON The Lochwinnoch Sanatorium was designed by Abercrombie & Maitlandin 1931.[Sources: Architect & Building News, 13 March 1931, p.389.]

MEARNSKIRK HOSPITAL, NEWTON MEARNS (largely demolished) Mearnskirk Hospital was provided by Glasgow Corporation’s Public Health Department as part of its scheme for the prevention and treatment of TB. The 321‑acre site was purchased in 1913 and building began in 1921. It was originally intended as a sanatorium for 500 children, with plans prepared by J. A. T. Houston. In the late 1980s, the complex at Mearnskirk survived as a remarkably complete and relatively unaltered range of buildings. Built of red brick, the whole emphasis of the ward blocks was on ventilation and fresh air, with south‑facing verandas to the half‑butterfly‑plan blocks and the long glazed ventilators straddling the roof ridges. The wards are set in pleasant garden grounds with mature trees. The administration, kitchen and stores and nurses’ home continue the simple but even proportions of the wards. Of particular note was the engine house and the tall chimney with an unusually elaborate blind arcaded upper stage, one of the finest surviving hospital chimneys.

At the outbreak of the Second World War the children were evacuated to Millport and, under the Emergency Medical Service hutted ward blocks were built on the site to convert it into a Naval Auxiliary Hospital. It maintained some beds for civilian patients including those evacuated from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and casualties from the blitz of Clydebank and Greenock. After the War it catered for adults and children with TB and a thoracic surgical unit was opened.

After its transfer to the National Health Service, ear, nose and throat, heart surgery and other specialities were introduced until, in 1960, it was re‑categorised as a general hospital. A new operating theatre suite for cardio‑thoracic surgery opened in 1970 and a new 30‑bed geriatric unit in 1980.

The hospital closed in the 1990s and some of the buildings retained as part of a new housing development on the site. Survivals include the gate piers, lodge, medical superintendent’s house (now Southfield House), admin block (now Hazeldene nursery), and the nurses’ home (now Southwood Place). As well as housing the new development included a care home, Mearnskirk House, built in 1996-8 to designs by the Walker Partnership. A bronze statue of Peter Pan by Alexander Proudfoot of 1948-9 has been erected in the forecourt, cast by G. Mancini in memory of Dr John Wilson, the first medical superintendent of the hospital. [Sources: Greater Glasgow Health Board: Pevsner Architectural Guide, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, 2016.]

MERCHISTON HOSPITAL, JOHNSTONE The present hospital was built c.1979‑84 for the mentally handicapped. Previously Merchiston House had been used as a mental deficiency institution. The house was built in 1880 and was demolished on the completion of the new hospital buildings in 1985.[Sources: Frank Walker, South Clyde Estuary]

PAISLEY MATERNITY HOSPITAL Built on the site of the former Riccartsbar Hospital (see below). The new maternity hospital at Paisley opened in September 1969 with 112 beds and two authorised places for private patients. It is just to the west of the new Royal Alexandra Hospital. [Sources: PP, 4th Report of the Expenditure Committee… 1972, p.411]

PEESWEEP SANATORIUM, PAISLEY Originally a rest and convalescent home, the curiously named Peesweep Sanatorium was constructed in 1910 on the open‑air principle with 18 single rooms. It was subsequently either re-built or substantially extended, probably around the 1920s. It survives today as Lapwing Lodge, owned by the West Region Scout Council.

Extract from the 2nd edition OS map, revised in 1911. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

PRINCESS LOUISE HOSPITAL, ERSKINE Erskine House was opened 10 October 1916 as a hospital for soldiers wounded in the First World War. The house had been built in 1828-45 to designs by Sir Robert Smirke for Major General Robert W Stuart, the 11th Lord Blantyre. Following the outbreak of the First World War the house was gifted by its then owner, Thomson Aikman, for use as a hospital with the possibility of purchasing the estate if required. An impressive £100,000 was swiftly raised by the public towards the new hospital.

Postcard sent 15 April 1922 from ‘J.L.H.’ to the misses Greig at 61 Main Street Kilwinning.

Garnering royal patronage, it became the Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers. The official opening by Princess Louise took place on June 6, 1917. Pressure on space and the need for workshops to assemble artificial limbs lead to the erection of huts in the grounds before the end of the war. [Sources. The History of Erskine, on the Remembering Scotland at War website]

RICCARTSBAR HOSPITAL, PAISLEY (Demolished) Originally built as the asylum for Paisley and Johnstone burghs, Riccartsbar Hospital opened in June 1876. It was built to designs by John Honeyman.

Extract from the 2nd edition OS map, surveyed in 1896. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

It closed in 1975 and patients were transferred to Dykebar. The buildings were demolished to make way for the new Royal Alexandra Hospital.

ROYAL ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL, PAISLEY This large new general hospital by Baxter, Clark & Paul opened in 1987 and replaced the old Royal Alexandra Infirmary.

ROYAL ALEXENDRA INFIRMARY, PAISLEY (Closed 1987) The Royal Alexandra Infirmary was built to designs by T. G. Abercrombie from 1897 to 1900. This monumental building was superceded by the new Royal Alexandra Hospital, but it was not the first incarnation for the Paisley hospital. In 1788 a public dispensary was founded in Paisley from which a House of Recovery was established in 1795. A variety of hospital buildings grew on the site at the west end of Abbey Bridge. Fever wards were provided and for a time cholera as treated on the site.

Extract from the OS Town Plan of Paisley, 1858. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

Extract from the 2nd edition OS map, surveyed in 1896. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

In 1878 grounds adjacent to the house were acquired by the parish council which built an epidemic hospital on the site for 60 patients although it was managed by the Infirmary. In 1886 a new convalescent home was opened in West Kilbride. In 1894 the managers decided that it was necessary to build a new hospital, the existing collection of buildings were largely outdated and the site overcrowded. The foundation stone of the new Royal Alexander Infirmary was laid on 15 May 1897. The project was richly endowed by W. B. Barbour who gifted £15,000 to the building fund and by a local mill owner, Peter Coats, who gifted the nurses’ home.

Extract from the 2nd edition OS map, surveyed in 1896. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

The plan of the infirmary is of particular interest from its incorporation of circular wards in a three storey block to the north and its ward pavilions to the south which terminate in semi‑circular open verandas.

Postcard of the Royal Alexandra Infirmary, showing east façade with the circular ward to the right. Why the image is labelled as the Royal Alexandria, rather than Alexandra, I do not know. Answers on a postcard?

The Infirmary closed in 1987, after which part of the main range was used as a care home the rest was converted into flats in about 1995. The former nurses’ home was converted into flats in 2005-6 by Aitken Turnbull Architecture. After the care home closed in about 2008, this part of the former infirmary began to deteriorate and was placed on the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland in 2010. Inadequately secured by its owners it has attracted the attention of urbexers, so many photographs of the derelict building can be found online, but also from vandals who are contributing to the rapid decline of a building that should be saved, should be sympathetically restored and converted to housing, and should be treasured for its fine architecture and the skill of the masons and builders who erected it. [Sources: D. Dow, Paisley Hospitals, Glasgow, 1988: records at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Archives: Paisley Library, plans: Pevsner Guide, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, 2016.]

ROYAL ALEXANDRA INFIRMARY ANNEXE, CRAW ROAD, PAISLEY (Closed 1987, demolished) The main building on the site was built as the Abbey Poorhouse and opened in 1849. The first poorhouse in Paisley was built in 1618 and provided accommodation for six men. It had fallen into disrepair when it was replaced in 1723 by a new building on the same site with a public hall and steeple. In 1752 a new poorhouse was opened known as the Town’s Hospital.

Extract from the OS Town Plan of Paisley, 1858. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

Detail of the OS Town Plan above.

After the 1845 Poor Law (Scotland) Act another new poorhouse was built on the Craw Road to which an asylum block was added in 1857.

Extract from the OS Town Plan of Paisley, 1858. (The map has been tilted to fit as much in as possible at the biggest scale, see below for correct orientation.) Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

Extract from the 1st-edition OS Map, surveyed in 1858. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

A hospital block was added in 1890 and a sanatorium in 1909. Westmount House was purchased in 1911 and a new infirmary block for men opened. St Margaret’s House, a Victorian villa by John Hutchison of 1879, was opened as an old peoples home in 1928.

Extract from the 2nd edition OS map, surveyed in 1911. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

In 1948 with the inauguration of the National Health Service the poorhouse complex was incorporated as an annexe to the Royal Alexandra Infirmary. Most of the purpose‑built poorhouse blocks were due for demolition in 1991. All have now been demolished apart from St Margaret’s House.

ROYAL VICTORIA EYE INFIRMARY, MANSIONHOUSE ROAD, PAISLEY (Closed 1987) This purpose‑built specialist hospital was opened on 11 December 1899. It was designed by Charles Davidson. The infirmary was founded in 1888, initially opening on 18 June of that year in rented rooms at No.1, Gauze Street. In 1896 it moved to Forbes Place and in the following year Archibald Mackenzie of Milliken provided funds for the new building. The new infirmary was designed in a domestic style with bow windows and spectacle glazing in the upper lights. [Sources: The Builder, 2 April 1898, p.334.]

THORN HOSPITAL, JOHNSTONE (Demolished) Like Barshaw Hospital in Paisley, the Thorn (sometimes Thornhill) Maternity Hospital was a converted house with a maternity ward added to it (Renfrew County Engineers Department, Samuel McColl principal architect) . With the opening of the new Paisley Maternity Hospital it changed its function, taking gynaecology and TB patients, but finally closed in 1987.

Share this:

Like this:

15 Responses to Renfrewshire (see also Inverclyde)

I was born in the Milliken Park Maternity Hospital on March 17, 1948. I have been unable to find any information on it. I will be visiting Glasgow in a few weeks and would like to visit my birthplace if the building still exists. Any help would be most welcome.
Chris Maziarski

Dear Chris,
I haven’t had much luck, I’m afraid. I think that Milliken Park Maternity Hospital is probably the same as Fordbank Maternity Home, Milliken Park. Fordbank was a large house to the south-west of Milliken Park Railway station, but it would seem to have been demolished. At the moment I can’t find out anything about it. I would suggest that you contact the Renfrewshire Heritage Centre at Paisley Library heritage@renfrewshire.gov.uk – they are most likely to be able to help or to have records relating to the hospital. If I turn anything up myself I will let you know.
best wishes,
from Harriet

Was born in Johnstone Maternity Hospital in 1940. Visited the site 4 years ago but the hospital was demolished many years ago. Any idea where I could find a photo? Would assist with my family history project.

Dear Ron, I would start local and try contacting the Johnstone History Society, or posting a request on the Johnstone History Museum facebook page, and you could email Paisley Central Library’s local studies library locstuds.els@renfrewshire.gov.uk
The Mitchell Library is worth contacting too, but the archives for the hospital are held in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Archives collections, so definitely get in touch with Alistair Tough there. http://www.archives.gla.ac.uk/gghb/collects/ac15.html
If you find a photograph, please let me know.
best wishes,
from Harriet

I was born in Paisley maternity in 1972, what hospital would this have been? Would it be the Royal Alexandria site before the Alexandria was built or was it the old infirmary off nielston road. I would love to know and see some old pictures

Dear John, I have been pondering this all morning. It’s odd how it is sometimes harder to find out about recent history than things that happened a century or more ago. I think that your best bet would be to contact Alistair Tough at the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde archives – they have patient records for the Royal Alexandria – which is the most likely I think – up to 1973. http://www.archives.gla.ac.uk/gghb/contact.html
If I come across anything further I will let you know,
best wishes,
from Harriet

I’ve just had another hunt around, and I think that Paisley Maternity Hospital was built in the late 1960s next to the old Riccartsbar Hospital – the present Royal Alexandra Hospital site. The building is still there – you can see it on Google street view.

Hi Harriet, your missing link in the chain of Paisley Maternity Hopsitals is Ross Hospital, Hawkhead Road, Paisley (the grounds of the then Hawkhead Infectious Diseases Hospital). It was founded in 1956 taking over from Barshaw Hospital (Barshaw House, Barshaw Park) and it closed in 1973 with the opening of the new (Royal Alexandra) Hospital on Corsebar Road.
Hope this is of some help.